Privatization of Legal Institutions

The state and the law seem to be inextricably intertwined: The state is often identified with its legislative and adjudicative capacities. Law and legal institutions are likewise associated with public authority, conjuring the image of public courts and state law. But technological and social transformations, characterizing the modern age, pose a growing challenge to the connection between these two institutions. One type of challenge is posed by globalization, especially in this age of new information, which paves the way for legal transactions that traverse territorial boundaries and/or that occur in the stateless realm of cyberspace. Legal institutions whose jurisdictions are delineated according to geopolitical lines cannot adequately regulate behavior in a world in which physical-geographic location is gradually becoming irrelevant.